Jeffrey Vanderbeek

Jeffrey "Jeff" Vanderbeek is the former owner of the New Jersey Devils, a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League. Vanderbeek, a New Jersey native and Devils season ticket holder since the late 1980s, bought a minority stake in the Devils when Puck Holdings, an affiliate of YankeeNets, purchased the team in 2000. In 2004, he bought the team outright and resigned his position as an executive vice president of Lehman Brothers,[1] which he joined in 1984.[2] He was ranked the ninth highest paid executive of 2002 by Business Week with pay totaling over $29 million.[3]

Owner of the New Jersey Devils

Vanderbeek has been a strong proponent of the Prudential Center, which hosted its first New Jersey Devils hockey game on October 27, 2007.[4][5]

In 2012, Vanderbeek finalized a deal with the team's lenders that allowed him to retain the franchise for at least two years.[6]

For the most part, Vanderbeek was a hands-off owner. He left the Devils' day-to-day operations in the hands of president and general manager Lou Lamoriello.

In August 2013, a deal was reached where Josh Harris, owner of the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers, bought controlling interest in the Devils for over $320 million. Vanderbeek remained as a minority owner after the sale.[7]

High school football coach

In December 2014, Vanderbeek was hired by Kyle Franey, Director of Athletics at Somerville High School, as co-head football coach. Somerville High School, one with a storied past, had lost 22 games in a row. In just his 4th game as head coach, on October 2, 2015, Somerville won its first home game in nearly four years.

Somerville High School football had gone 2–28 in the three season prior to his arrival. In just Jeff Vanderbeek's second season as head coach "The Ville" ran off 10 straight wins, falling in the state semifinal to the eventual champion, Rumson-Fair Haven. Along the way the Pioneers recorded a Mid State Conference Mountain Division Championship and dubbed the season #TheRise, which is chronicled at www.somervillefootball.com.

Their 25-game losing streak far in the rearview mirror, in 2017, The Ville, led by Jeffrey Vanderbeek won their second consecutive Mid State 38 Mountain Division Championship and added the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group 3 State Championship - The Pioneers first state title since 1994. After going 2–21 in their previous 23 games, "The Ville" under Jeffrey Vanderbeek turned their football program around to go 21-3 and won the Central Jersey Group 3 NJSIAA State Sectional Championship on December 2, 2017 at Rutgers High Point Solutions Stadium. After graduating 12 first team all conference players during an 11–1 season in 2016, The Ville was expected to have a rebuilding year, but in quite possibly the greatest turnaround in high school football history, Somerville Football defeated Rumson-Fair Haven to become state champions, defeating the 4 time defending state champions who had also won 8 of the last 9 sectional championships. #TheGrind became the motto of the season, and the 2017 team saw underclassman score 31 of the last 32 touchdowns of the season. For this unlikely and unprecedented turnaround Jeff Vanderbeek was named the area and state Coach of the Year.

Personal life

Raised in Somerville, New Jersey, Vanderbeek moved to Bridgewater Township as a child and graduated from Bridgewater-Raritan High School East in 1975.[8]

He resides in Warren Township, New Jersey, having previously resided in South Orange, New Jersey.[9]

References
  1. Caldwell, Dave (2004-03-03). "Wall Street Executive to Buy Devils". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 23, 2009. Retrieved 2006-11-15.
  2. "Lehman Brothers Holdings, Form DEF 14A, Filing Date Mar 1, 2002". secdatabase.com. Retrieved May 14, 2018. Filed 2002-03-01. Retrieved on 2006-11-15.
  3. Lavelle, Louis (2003-03-21). "Exec Pay: More Pain for CEOs". Business Week. Archived from the original on 2006-04-27. Retrieved 2006-11-15.
  4. Brennan, John (2002-10-17). "Newark approves $200M for arena". The Record (Bergen County).
  5. Rotstein, Gary (2006-07-31). "$290M in funding tight, but doable, for arena". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2006-08-30.
  6. KOSMAN, JOSH. "Deal lets Devils owner stay in game". New York Post. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
  7. Sielski, Mike (August 14, 2013). "New Jersey Devils Set to Be Sold". The Wall Street Journal.
  8. Frezza, Harry; Deak, Mike. "Jeff Vanderbeek, former Devils owner, to coach Somerville H.S. football", Courier News, January 21, 2015. Accessed September 4, 2019. "Jeff Vanderbeek is a 1975 graduate of Bridgewater-Raritan East High School.... He returns to a place he lived until 1969 when the family left their East Spring Street home a few blocks from Brooks Field to live on Northern Drive in Bridgewater."
  9. Caldwell, Dave. "Hockey; Wall Street Executive To Purchase Devils", The New York Times, March 3, 2004. Accessed October 21, 2015. "Vanderbeek said he had been a Devils season-ticket holder for about 15 years. Before he moved to Warren, N.J., Vanderbeek lived in South Orange, not far from the team training complex in West Orange."
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